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Sony, Warner sue Anthropic over IP theft
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Sony Music and Warner Chappell sued Anthropic for using copyrighted lyrics to train Claude. The case could reshape AI copyright law and cost billions.
Background
Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has faced multiple lawsuits from authors and publishers over using copyrighted material to train its models. In September 2025, it settled with authors for $1.5 billion, the largest copyright settlement in US history. Now music publishers are suing, alleging massive theft of song lyrics and sheet music.
How it unfolded
- Sep 2025Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors and publishers over copyright infringement.
- Aug 29, 2026Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging unauthorized use of song lyrics and sheet music to train its AI models.
- Aug 30, 2026The lawsuit was widely reported, with publishers seeking up to $150,000 per infringed work and demanding destruction of pirated data.
Who’s saying what
- Plaintiffs
- Sony and Warner call it 'one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history' and say Anthropic views settlements as 'a cost of doing business.'
- Anthropic
- Anthropic has rejected the allegations and said it plans to fight the case.
Still unverified
The $2-trillion valuation figure for Anthropic is attributed to a Forbes report on a projected October IPO, which is not confirmed.